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Updated: May 2, 2025
The business of the evening was curtailed to give the pair a chance to talk, and when the contract was signed, Elizabeth said that she would go home with Nathan, and John Hunter thrust himself into the felicitous arrangement by taking the young girl over in his farm wagon, it being decided that Patsie's lameness made it best for her to remain housed in Silas's barn for the night.
She waited for him to take cognizance of her presence, and to cover her confusion adjusted and readjusted a strap on Patsie's harness, thankful for the presence of her favourite. "Let that harness alone!" her father commanded when he was at last embarrassed by his prolonged inspection of the wagon-brake. "All right, pa," Elizabeth replied, glad to have the silence broken in any manner.
Yet, in spite of Patsie and Patsie's Mamma, and the love that these two lavished upon him, His Majesty the King fell grievously from grace, and committed no less a sin than that of theft unknown, it is true, but burdensome. There came a man to the door one day, when His Majesty was playing in the hall and the bearer had gone to dinner, with a packet for his Majesty's Mamma.
There was a perfect deluge of water from the burdened sky, and though no sign of a house could be seen, she knew she could not be far from the Chamberlain homestead; but the ground was becoming more and more soggy, and her garments were not of the heaviest. Patsie's feet went ploop, ploop, ploop, in the soft, muddy road.
Patsie's Mamma was always ready to give counsel, help, and sympathy, and, if need were and callers few, to enter into their games with an abandon that would have shocked the sleek-haired subalterns who squirmed painfully in their chairs when they came to call on her whom they profanely nicknamed "Mother Bunch."
As Elizabeth turned to her hostess, the old man exclaimed, "Why, Gosh all Friday, what's happened to your horse?" "I'm awfully worried about Patsie's foot. She slipped in the muddy road this afternoon. Do you suppose It'll lay her up? It's a busy time and pa needs her." "I don't know; it's in a ticklish place. I'll rub it good with Mustang liniment; that's th' best thing I know of.
By the time the ladder was put away again her hands were stinging till it was impossible to work, and she ran to the barn where she could put them against Patsie's flank while she blew her warm breath upon them. Patsie was ticklish, and twitched her loose hide nervously and gnawed at her feed-box with little squeals of excitement. The feed-box was of two-inch lumber instead of the usual sort.
His Majesty the King sobbed inconsolably, and the heart of Patsie's mother was touched. She drew the child on to her knee. Clearly it was not temper alone. "What is it, Toby? Won't you tell me? Aren't you well?" The torrent of sobs and speech met, and fought for a time, with chokings and gulpings and gasps.
Luther, who came often to see Hugh, had spoken to John of Patsie's death in Elizabeth's presence, and after the first pained expression of surprise and grief, Elizabeth had never mentioned it again. John had noticed also that Elizabeth had never asked the price of the last team, nor seemed to take any interest in them, and he hoped by the same means to avoid confessing to Hugh.
Now you run on to th' house; you're wet enough t' wake up lame yourself in th' mornin'," he admonished, straightening up, with his hands on the small of his back. Having dismissed Elizabeth, Silas Chamberlain took Patsie's saddle from her back and laid it across Old Queen's harness, taking his own team into the barn first.
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